Archive for incubation

This year I have decided to attend as many startup events and meet as many people as possible. May be this will help me to find fresh ideas for my startup and give me opportunity to meet some really smart hackers and geeks to work with. I will starting with Startup Saturday which is happening tomorrow.

So what is a Startup Saturday?

Let me quote what organizers have to say about it :

Startup Saturday is an initiative by Headstart to provide entrepreneurs in each city with a monthly community driven forum that is structured in agenda but open in discussions. A Startup Saturday provides a forum for entrepreneurs to discuss, present, network and learn from peers, prospective customers, adopters, partners and investors.

The fundamental idea is to have all parts of the innovation ecosystem interact with each other with high frequency and through rich conversation. We strongly believe that this would lead to faster evolution of the entire ecosystem.

Very interesting indeed. So what should one expect at Startup Saturday?

Expect a Startup Saturday once a month on the second Saturday. Spend approx three hours spread across at least two interactive sessions and networking.

The first session is usually a demo. If you are an entrepreneur giving the demo, expect this session to be very interactive. Expect a lot of “whys” and “why nots” – a great way to refine the product and to figure out the areas which need more work and also the areas that are well covered. If you’re a participant, expect a window into another business that can give you ideas about your own business or insights into how to design your product. Expect a lot of debate where your question to the speaker may actually get answered/countered by another participant! In short, look out for a brain tickling discussion.

The second session is usually a talk. This is usually on a skill that is needed by an entrepreneur – sales, marketing, product management, VC pitch, VC management, PR, hiring people etc. It can even be a talk about a product/services that cannot be demoed. This is usually done by someone who has hands on experience and insights. Again expect this to be highly interactive.

Lastly, you’ve an opportunity to meet everyone else over snacks and tea/coffee and network.

Absolutely awesome. Right? So basic ideas is if your are a

a. Startup enthusiast looking for a platform to meet similar minds

b. Early stage startup interested in giving demo of your geeky new product

I attended one meeting of Startup Saturday last year. It was a good experienced overall. Believe me, if you are into startups, event like this make huge differences to your motivation. When you meet and talk passionate peoples ready to change the world, it give a huge adrenaline rush. Its like being part of mini revolution.

So whats agenda for tomorrows meeting

From event description it seems they are conducting a panel discussion on product vs services dilemma faced by every India startup. I had the opportunity to listen one of the panelist, Mr. Sujai Karampuri , founder of Sloka telecom, in my last meeting. He was not only a candid speaker but also a thought leader . He is big evangelist of of product development. you can find his thoughts on this subject here. I don’t know much about other panel members. I think this is the most beautiful part of much meet ups. You get to know and meet so many unsung heroes of the industry.

I think organizers should have created a FB/Linked group so we that we could make out who else are coming and their motivation behind attending meet up. Planning for car ppoling could have been a big plus. Small session like meet the co-founder or startup date post meetup could help startups finding talents. Surprising there is no ‘like’ button on event page . It would help in spread the words about event. Will discuss these points with team there.

In case you are planning to attend and like to meet and discuss just give me a ping @889236683four

“We invest our sweat and usually less than $1MM in a startup over a period of 2 years working in tandem with the founders. We are much more like Y-combinator than Sequoia. We don’t consider ourselves a VC like Sequoia because we work so closely with founders and view more modest exits as a success. We love Y-Combinator’s approach, but they just help a company get out of the gates. We engage for a much longer period and happen to invest more time and money in each business.”Low investment,low exits model very well suits present day business model of internet start-ups.Incubation Team is small but is with good credentials.I like there site (epecially the drwaings). It is very cool,original and express the idea very well.

But either intentionally or un-intentionlly they forget to mention market they are trying to address.Right now they are california based incubators so obvious markets seems to be US’s bay area.Its not clear weather they would be interested to be “INDIAN YCOMBINATOR” or not.

To me there is desperate need for such program for Indian market.Lot many indian entreprenuer seek capital,advice and connection that such program can provide.